[Blindtlk] Confronting Discrimination at McDonald's

[Ray Foret Jr]

I must say, I have the following thoughts.

1.  Seems to me that the manager spoke better English than she let on.

2.  It's pretty obvious that somebody's not telling the truth about whether or not the manager said guide dogs were not allow in the restaurant.  So, yes, there is a legal problem here:  or, to be more exact, a law awareness issue.  

3.  While I understand Merry's feelings about the matter, I feel that she came off rather cold and legalistic.  I understand what she was trying to do:  and, while I agree with the substance of what she said, I feel that if I were a manager, I would not have been very receptive to her approach and, to put it quite frankly, I would have been a little put off by it.  Of course, one could validly argue that the stress of the moment of being subject to discrimination might well bring that out in a person.  Fair enough:  however, I feel that a warmer approach might have gotten a little further.  Yes, of course there is a problem.  Yes, it needed to be dealt with.  Not to have done so would have been wrong.  Indeed, it would have been very very wrong.  Still, I cannot help but wonder if the best approach was taken here.  While it may be said truthfully that the approach Merry used was surely better than none at all, I myself wonder how I would have done it.  Honestly, I cannot say what I would have done:  but, I would have if possible used perhaps a softer tone of voice and made it more conversational.  It may be fairly said, I suspect, that it's easy for me to say that since I'm not the one dealing with it:  but, I think that if one is truly ignorant of a wrong having been done, one must be corrected in a way which seems less threatening at first.  We cannot always remain in an armed camp mentality:  for if we do, we will lose something of the humanness which makes the Federation what it is.  After all, not every sighted manager is bad or ignorant.

4.  Another point which causes me concern, (and here I speak more generally), is that I am noticing that almost every time something goes wrong for one of us, we threaten to sue.  Is that what we are reducing ourselves to nowadays?  Also, I think we need to be more careful about what causes we embrace.  After all, what does this do to our image as a group if we impulsively embrace a cause without knowing all the facts only to discover later on after we've made all our noise and protests that the so-called facts of the case turned out not to be true at all or else so partially true that we wind up being made fools of?  

	Let me close with this.  The video does appear to demonstrate validity to much if not all of what was claimed:  but, I would urge us to put raw emotion aside and make very certain that we have all the facts of any case before plunging in to it.


Sincerely,
the Constantly Barefooted Ray, Still a very happy Mac and iphone user!
Sent from my Mac, the only computer with full accessibility for the blind built-in!

On Jul 12, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Marion Gwizdala via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Please feel free to disseminate and repost this message as widely as
> appropriate. 
> 
> 
> 
> Dear All,
> 
>                Some of you were unable to access the video, so, thanks to a
> fellow Federationist who posted it to his YouTube channel, here it is to
> view!I have also included a brief narrative from merry that will offer a
> little more background before the link.
> 
> 
> 
> Fraternaly yours,
> 
> 
> 
> Marion Gwizdala, President
> 
> National Association of Guide Dog Users Inc.
> 
> National Federation of the Blind
> 
> (813) 626-2789
> 
> (888) 624-3841 (Hotline)
> 
> President at nagdu.org
> 
> http://www.nagdu.org
> 
> 
> 
> High expectations create unlimited potential for the blind!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Before everyone views the video I will give a brief description of what
> happened before the video was taken.
> 
> 
> 
> Marion and I walked into our local McDonalds- we have been in this
> restaurant hundreds of times.  I have lived in this area off and on since
> 1988 and have been a permanent resident since 1997.  Marion and I bought our
> house here in 2003. This area is great for pedestrians because it has  some
> stores and restaurants within walking distance - perfect for our lifestyle.
> 
> 
> Continuing on...
> 
> We stood together in the lobby waiting for an available cashier for a few
> minutes.  When we approached the counter a  young man came from the back of
> the restaurant and stated that the manager said no dogs allowed. We shared
> these were service dogs and the cashier stated it as well.  I then asked to
> speak with his manager, he replied that his manager did not speak English.
> 
> I was actually dumbfounded by this.  We ordered our food and got our drinks
> and sat down to eat.
> 
> 
> 
> As we ate we discussed with each other that we needed to educate the manager
> before we left and video this interaction.  We were going to ask for a
> translater.  We video recorded  an introduction before moving towards the
> counter area.  As we began to move toward the counter area the manager
> approached us.
> 
> 
> 
> Now some thoughts before we spoke to her.  Yes our neighborhood has a great
> deal of Hispanic speaking individuals, our local Latin American Grocery
> store has the best and cheapest Cuban sandwiches. Back to topic:  As we
> discussed over our meal although there is a great deal of Hispanic speaking
> individuals in our neighborhood there is a higher percentage of English
> speaking people.  It did not make sense to us that McDonalds would put a
> manager in a restaurant that does not speak English well.  The video will
> show that the manager still claims she speaks little English.  After the
> recording, our cashier was in the lobby taking a break and I asked her if
> the manager spoke English she stated she did.  Unfortunately, as the video
> will demonstrate, the manager took no responsibility for her employees
> actions and basically threw them under the bus.
> 
> 
> 
> We have worked in the past with this McDonalds to do local events and have
> contacted a member of upper management (Director of Marketing) for the
> Corporation.  I am sure we will hear from him on Monday.  He can view the
> video as well.
> 
> 
> 
> I was a restaurant manager in 1984 and if something liked this occurred in
> my store, I would have been proactive! I would have been at my customer's
> table while they were eating, took their receipt, reimbursed them their
> money, gave them tickets for free meals on their next visit,and  I would
> have told them my employees were wrong in their behavior and I would train
> them appropriately.  This manager did none of these things and only appeared
> to have her employees do her dirty work and then be deceitful in the area of
> communicating with us.  Apologies are not well received when they don't
> appear genuine! Now for the video!
> 
> 
> 
> http://youtu.be/kePK2vedOog
> 
> 
> 
> Merry Schoch, Vice President
> 
> Florida Association of Guide dog Users
> 
> 
> 
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